Beauty and the Billionaire Dragon Shifter: BBW Paranormal Romance (Gray's Hollow Dragon Shifters Book 2) Read online

I hope kissing and true love aren’t out of the question, she thought. It might not be the time just now, but she couldn’t deny the pull she felt any more than she could deny what she’d seen.

  A second later she thought, It’s a shame you’re not a dragon anymore, though. I really wanted to see a dragon.

  She smiled back at Ilie. “Do you—do you need anything? Can I call someone for you? You must want to—to see your family.”

  “Well.” Ilie looked down at himself. “I guess I need to borrow some clothes from Gus, at least. And—” He looked in the direction the dog had gone, his smile fading. “And find Mouse.”

  “Mouse?” Becca repeated, though it was obvious he meant the enormous dog.

  “He’s mouse-sized to me,” Ilie said, and an odd expression crossed his face. “I mean—he was. When I was a dragon. But it’s too late to change his name now.”

  “Of course,” Becca agreed.

  “I don’t think he knows it’s me,” Ilie added, frowning down at his own body. “He’s never seen me like this. I must smell all wrong to him. He’s—he was—”

  He looked so stricken that Becca wanted desperately to hug him. She settled for leaning forward and setting one hand on his knee.

  He twitched all over, his eyes going wide and meeting hers again, and she realized that she was the first person who’d touched him on skin instead of scales in—how long? Probably a very long time. She started to draw her hand back, but Ilie caught it and pressed it down.

  His hand was warm on hers, strong but not crushing, and Becca shivered a little herself, at the touch and the intensity of his gaze.

  “I’ll—I’ll call someone,” Becca said after a moment. “We’ll find Mouse.”

  Ilie nodded and looked away, letting go of her hand. After another moment Becca remembered to take her hand off his knee and take out her phone.

  ***

  Ms. Stafford called Cara, and announced herself to Cara as Becca. Learning her first name was almost enough to distract Ilie from worrying about Mouse. When he reached for the dog in his mind, he got no answer now, just a sense of Mouse running through the woods. Looking for Ilie?

  Did Ilie have to trade? Mouse for Becca? His dragon shape for his mate?

  He was vaguely aware of Becca explaining the situation to Cara, but she’d only begun when Ilie heard Gus’s voice in his mind. It sounded different, more distant, than when he was in his dragon shape, but at least he hadn’t lost that altogether.

  Ilie? Gus said. Are you—are you okay?

  I don’t know, Ilie admitted. I think she’s my mate, Gus. I saw her and I changed, just like that. And now I’m naked. And Mouse doesn’t know me. He ran off.

  I’ll check on Mouse, Gus promised. Cara will bring you some clothes. And… congratulations, little brother.

  Ilie looked at Becca and shaped his mouth into a smile again. His mate. Whatever it cost, he knew she was worth it. Every time he looked at her he wanted to earn another glance from those sky-blue eyes, another kind touch, anything. He had been right to change for her. A dragon’s mate was a treasure beyond any other.

  Even if it meant he couldn’t be a real dragon anymore.

  ***

  There was a sound of enormous wings that made Becca jump to her feet, and Ilie got up too. But the sound retreated without the dragon coming into sight. A moment later Cara appeared there in the middle of the woods, incongruously holding a shopping bag.

  “Ilie!” she called out, breaking into a run and a huge smile when she saw him.

  Ilie covered himself with one hand—which he hadn’t, Becca couldn’t help noticing, the whole time he was alone with her—and waved with the other.

  Cara raised one hand, strategically shielding her own view of Ilie’s lower half. She held out the shopping bag with the other hand. “Here, Ilie, you get dressed. Becca, why don’t we just…”

  Cara set down the shopping bag and waved Becca over to her. Becca joined her back on the path, standing with their backs to Ilie. Becca stared into the trees, mostly focused on not letting herself look back.

  No checking him out in front of the mayor’s wife who is also his sister-in-law, she told herself firmly. No matter what a shame it is that he’s covering up.

  After a moment, though, she realized that Cara was looking over at her. Becca looked back, and found Cara’s expression very… intent.

  “I know this is really sudden,” Cara said. “But… what do you think of Ilie?”

  Becca thought a lot of things she wasn’t going to say to Ilie’s sister-in-law. She felt her cheeks flush hot as she struggled for words.

  Cara smiled knowingly. “Yeah. The Gray boys are like that.”

  Becca covered her mouth to stifle a nervous giggle, and then Ilie said, “Hey, um. Dressed now.”

  Becca turned, and her lips parted at the sight. Ilie had been gorgeous naked. He’d looked like a madman, but he’d been gorgeous. Now, in tight dark blue jeans and a tight-fitting light-gray T-shirt, he looked real. He looked like a guy she could have met in some other circumstances than “transformed from a dragon in the woods,” though not like a guy whose attention she would expect to catch. Becca’s skin tingled all over.

  Ilie was watching her right back, giving a hesitant smile. He spread his arms slightly, as if asking for her approval.

  “Good work,” she said. He’d brushed off the worst of the dirt, too. “You got everything the right way around.”

  Ilie grinned, wide and bright. “I had to try twice with the shirt.”

  Becca reached out to tug at the short sleeve of the shirt, her fingers brushing the curve of his bicep. She felt him give a tiny shiver at the touch of her fingers, and she felt an answering heat between her legs. “You got there.”

  “Okay!” Cara said brightly.

  Becca was startled to remember she was there. She saw Ilie’s surprise, too. They’d both completely forgotten anyone else was in the woods with them, let alone standing practically in arm’s reach.

  “I’m going to go,” Cara said. “I’ll help Gus find Mouse, and Becca, we’ll give you a call when we find him. Maybe you could come up to the house for dinner later? We’ll talk. Later.”

  “Thanks, Cara,” Ilie said, his gaze already sliding back to Becca.

  “No problem!” Cara said. “Nice seeing you again, Becca, and welcome to the—um, to Gray’s Hollow!”

  Becca made herself look in Cara’s direction, but Cara was already hurrying away down the path.

  When Becca looked back at Ilie, she was conscious that they were alone together again. Her hand, she found, was still on his arm, and now he raised his hand to smooth his thumb over the sleeve of her T-shirt.

  The brush of his fingers against her bare skin made her shiver like she was the one who hadn’t been touched in years. He made her want things she shouldn’t be thinking of with a man she’d just met.

  He really did have very persuasive eyes, though. And if dragons could be real, how could she doubt this connection she felt?

  I don’t know why, Becca thought. But there’s only one way to find out.

  “Do you,” Ilie said hesitantly. “Did you want to see more of the woods? I’m probably a terrible guide. I’m not used to navigating from this side of the trees.”

  “This side of…” Becca said, frowning, and Ilie pointed up.

  “Oh,” Becca looked up, imagining Ilie in the form of a huge dragon like his brother, flying overhead, a dark shape against the blue sky. “Maybe we should stay on the path, then.”

  Ilie nodded, and he slid his hand down the whole length of her arm to take her hand. “I could walk you back to town?”

  “I’d like that,” Becca said, and she squeezed her hand on his.

  ***

  They were halfway down the mountain, walking mostly in silence and stealing looks at each other, before Ilie frowned and said, “Can I ask you something?”

  Becca nodded, her heart speeding up again.

  “This is probably weird. I used
to ask Gus sometimes, but he thought it was weird.”

  Becca shook her head, tightening her grip on his hand. “Ask me anything.”

  “Can you tell me about a TV show you like?” Ilie asked shyly. “I—I haven’t watched TV in a really long time. I get to see movies sometimes—they do this drive-in thing in the summer, once a week, and show movies projected on the backside of the auditorium. But no TV. I kind of miss it.”

  “Oh,” Becca said. That wasn’t at all what she’d expected. “I—of course. Let me see.”

  She tried to think of something that wouldn’t require too much weird, complicated explanation of plotlines, and then she grinned.

  “My very favorite TV show is a miniseries,” she announced. “I’ve seen it probably dozens of times. I almost have it memorized.”

  Ilie nodded encouragingly, and she laughed.

  “I don’t know if you’d think it was exciting. It’s called Cosmos, and it’s the reason I studied science—I’m a science teacher, did I tell you that? I think maybe I went into teaching because of Cosmos, too. It’s all about explaining the world to people, and to kids. I wanted to do that. To help people understand how amazing the world is, how much there is to learn about the whole universe.”

  She shook her head, looking over at Ilie, who had been a dragon until a little while ago. “Not that kids in Gray’s Hollow need help with that, probably.”

  “Oh, well, I don’t know,” Ilie said. “It’s a little town. The woods are nice, but it’s pretty hemmed in sometimes. I don’t think anybody else here gets to see the stars like I do. Flying, you know…”

  Ilie trailed off, like he was realizing all over again that he’d suddenly ceased to be a dragon today.

  Becca squeezed his hand, and he looked over at her and smiled.

  “So,” he said. “Tell me about Cosmos.”

  ***

  Becca wound up more or less reciting the whole first episode of Cosmos to Ilie, stopping to explain things in more detail when he asked questions. He was curious and eager to learn. It occurred to Becca that books and schooling were probably even more inaccessible than TV to a dragon.

  She was deep in an explanation of the newest discoveries of extrasolar planets when the path they were on flattened out into a sidewalk. She barely noticed, except that they got a block further and someone said, “Ilie? Is that—Ilie Dragomir, what’ve you gone and done?”

  Becca looked around and saw that the voice was coming from a man old enough to be her—or Ilie’s—grandfather, sitting on a bench in front of the hardware store. Two other men were sitting nearby, playing chess at a table for two, and their gazes went back and forth from Ilie to her, silently assessing.

  “It’s me,” Ilie said quietly. Becca might have believed the calmness of his voice except that his hand was squeezing almost painfully tight on hers.

  “I—I met Miss Stafford here today, and… here I am.”

  All their eyes settled firmly on Becca, and she gave them her biggest first-day-of-school smile. They really couldn’t be worse than a classroom full of bored twelve-year-olds. There weren’t that many of them, for one thing.

  “It’s true,” Becca said brightly, giving a showy wink. “Apparently I have very persuasive eyes.”

  Two of the old men laughed out loud, while the third shook his head and pretended to scrutinize the chessboard. Their attention stayed on her and off Ilie.

  “If you’ll excuse us,” Becca added. “We’ve just been getting to know each other.”

  That got a laugh from all three of them, and Becca felt herself blush a little. She hadn’t meant to make that much of an innuendo, but apparently it didn’t take much. Clearly they’d all read the same fairy tales, and knew what it meant when the beast transformed to a handsome prince.

  “Get on with you, then,” the first old man said. “You’re only young once.”

  Ilie nodded beside her. Becca waved and said, “Thanks! Bye!” as she pulled him away.

  “It’s not that I’m shy, really,” Ilie said, still holding her hand when they were safely out of earshot of the men. “It’s just… it’s strange now.”

  “You can be shy if you want,” Becca said firmly. “I am, when I let myself be. Teaching kind of trains you to barrel through it, though.”

  Ilie smiled at that and squeezed her hand tighter. Becca led him quickly on the shortest line to a refuge: the florist’s shop, and her apartment above it.

  They nearly made it, but Mrs. McCullough was in the doorway of the shop. She waved them sternly inside before they could make for the back stairs.

  Becca looked at Ilie, but he actually relaxed his grip on her hand. Mrs. McCullough wasn’t quite so intimidating to him, apparently.

  “Well,” Mrs. McCullough said to Becca, giving her an approving look. “You do work quickly. Very good. Ilie, do you still like those caramels from Rosa’s shop?”

  Ilie’s mouth opened and closed, and then he shrugged. “I haven’t had any in… a long time.”

  “I’ve been keeping some for you,” Mrs. McCullough said, bustling back behind the counter of the shop. “Not the same ones, of course. I buy fresh every so often. Here.”

  She held out a handful of candies, in shiny silver foil wrappers.

  Ilie took them from her with a smile and a nod that was almost a bow. “Thanks, ma’am.”

  “It’s good to see you this way again,” Mrs. McCullough said, and waved them away. “I won’t keep you now, go on. I’ve got a few more orders to do, but I’ll be closing up the shop pretty early tonight, I think.”

  Becca felt her face go hot, and Ilie’s hand tightened hard on hers again.

  “Thanks,” Becca croaked. She let Ilie drag her to the door and around to the stairs.

  She unlocked the door and led him into the blessed coolness of her air-conditioned apartment. It was pleasantly dim in the bright afternoon with the blinds drawn.

  She meant to apologize for the moving boxes still scattered everywhere, but when she turned to look at him, Ilie was looking down at the candy in his hands. A little frown creased his forehead.

  “Caramels, huh?”

  Ilie looked up at her with a quick smile. “She used to slip me a few when I would come in. When I was a kid. I haven’t been there in… a long time. I don’t know why she remembered that.”

  “I guess these would be a pretty tiny snack for a dragon,” Becca said.

  He shook his head. “Sweets don’t taste good to a dragon. We’re… My mom told me the term once. We’re obligate hypercarnivores, in that shape. There are a lot of things I haven’t eaten since I was a kid. But sweets, especially.”

  “Well,” Becca said. “You should probably enjoy this, then, shouldn’t you?”

  Ilie looked at her, his cheeks flushing pink. “I’m pretty sure I will.”

  Becca felt herself tingle all over, starting to get wet at the thought of what else Ilie might enjoy—what everyone in town thought they were up here doing. Because everyone in town knew that it meant something, that she had been the one to draw him back into human form, after all these years. A pretty unlikely Beauty, she thought, but she couldn’t argue with the results.

  “Come on,” Becca said softly. “Let’s sit down, at least.”

  Ilie nodded and followed her over to the couch. It had come with the apartment, and it was nicer than Becca had expected, soft and welcoming and a lovely shade of dark blue. Ilie sat down and then sank back into it with a wondering expression.

  Becca grinned. “No couches for dragons, either?”

  Ilie shook his head. “I mean, this is no hoard of gold, but it’s pretty comfy.”

  Becca opened and closed her mouth and then said, “I can’t tell if you’re joking.”

  Ilie grinned, showing his teeth, and didn’t answer.

  Becca laughed. “Well, other than a hoard of gold, everything you could want, right? Nice soft couch, some caramels…”

  “And you,” Ilie said softly, and Becca felt rocked again by h
is certainty. They hardly knew each other, and yet…

  “Here,” he offered, holding his hand out. “You try one first, tell me if it’s the first sweet thing I should eat after all this time.”

  “Oh, but they’re yours,” Becca demurred.

  “Well, that’s what makes it a gift,” Ilie said, grinning. “Giving you stuff that isn’t mine wouldn’t be any good, would it? Come on, try one.”

  Becca plucked one of the candies from his hand and unwrapped it, pausing to inhale the rich, sweet smell. She kept her eyes on Ilie’s as she popped the caramel between her lips. She had to close her eyes then, moaning a little as the taste of it filled her mouth.

  “Ohh, Ilie. You should definitely have one.”

  “Hmm,” Ilie said. When she opened his eyes she saw that he had tipped his hand so he was cupping the candies between two palms. “Too bad I don’t have a hand free to eat one.”

  He gave her a silly, pleading look. Becca shook her head but picked up another candy and unwrapped it.

  “You’re lucky I like you,” she said as his mouth opened for the caramel.

  He pulled back just enough to say, perfectly seriously, “I know.”

  Then he tilted his head forward again, his lips open for the candy. She set it gently on his tongue, eagerly watching his face for his reaction.

  His eyes closed as soon as his mouth did, and his hands closed tight around the remaining candies. The noise he made as he chewed was low in his chest, a groan that almost sounded painful, except that he was smiling so widely.

  “Oh, wow, Becca, oh. Candy. I forgot how good that is.” He opened his eyes wide as he spoke, and his pupils were huge black pools with a ring of silver around them.

  Becca laughed. “Look at you, you really are going to get sugar-high. Do you want another one?”

  “I can still taste this one. Maybe we could—”

  A bell rang downstairs, and they could both hear Mrs. McCullough speaking to a customer. Becca felt herself blush hotly, and Ilie bit his lip and leaned forward to carefully set the candies down on the coffee table.

  “Maybe we could…” Becca said, looking around, and her eyes fell on the TV. “Oh! I could show you an episode of Cosmos.”